Last (x) movies you saw

Shakma (Logan & Parks, 1990) 1.5/5
Poltergeist ("Hooper," 1982) 3/5
Shin Godzilla (Anno/Higuchi/Onoue, 2016) 3.5/5

The Revenant - 7.81/10
Children of Men - 8.85/10
Deadpool - 6.65/10

"Queen of Katwe" (Mira Nair, 2016): I love movies like this, ostensibly for kids but not *just* for kids or compromised for kids. Also great to see a pretty much entirely African cast, with a couple of Oscar winner/nominee ringers (David Oyelowo and Lupita Wyong’o) alongside what must be newcomers and amateurs. Filmed on location in Uganda and South Africa, with all of Nair's vibrant colors fully resplendent. Formulaic based on a true story stuff? I suppose. But in its own way also pretty radical, especially for Disney. The perfect film to see with my two young girls.

The Man Who Left His Will on Film (3.5/5)
Upstream Color (4/5)
Sully (3.5/5)
Don't Breathe (3/5)
Hell or High Water (3.5/5)
Indignation (3.5/5)
Parallax Sounds (3/5)
Grin Without a Cat (5/5)

Some of the festival circuit stuff is finally making its way to Phoenix. Kate Plays Christine and Certain Women both open this week, looking forward to seeing those. Moonlight will in a few weeks too, they had the poster up at the expensive Scottsdale luxury art theater last time I was there.

glad to hear Queen of Katwe was good, I feel like filmheads just decided to stop caring about Mira Nair a decade ago

Talk about not caring, this is Lupita Nyong’o's first major role since winning an Oscar. Of all the actors who should be doing more than cartoon voices ...

she was really good in it

I saw it pretty much accidentally, I went to a preview knowing nothing about it and my heart kinda sank when I realised it was a kids' film and an inspirational underdog story to boot. It won me over by the end tho

Watched Bloody kids the 1980 Stephen Poliakoff film that I've had sitting around for the last couple of months. Think i saw it when it was first on tv and have half remembered bits of it since. Especially a scene with a bunch of youth on a bus. Way I remembered it from seeing it when i was a preteen wasn't the way it actually happened.
But interesting gritty teen drama set in some seaside town I think. Atmospheric I thought.
I grabbed this because I'd suggested it when somebody I know was looking for punk films, which this sin't really but it does have a lot of punks around in it.

Star Trek Beyond, got a decent version of this recently so finally got around to seeing it. It's ok. Kind of enjoyable I guess.

manchester by the sea - bit long, casey affleck is great
i, daniel blake - not a huge fan of ken loach but despite suffering from some of the things i bemoan in his other films - on the nose political messages, one-note gifted or saintly working class protagonists - there was something very austere and heartbreaking about this movie

no pun intended

Loach does my head in, but his one note is pretty fucking true atm.

Seeing it on Sunday.

ows I love these two films - would make for a p/good double bill. Think mid-80s is my favourite period for Rohmer.

full moon over paris (rohmer 84, 8/10)
tout une nuit (akerman 82, 8/10)

Renoir. Really lovely. Had no idea the painter was related to the film director until it said so before the credits.

Sausage Party (REALLY BAD!)
Yoga Hosers (Oh my God, Also REALLY REALLY BAD!)
My Blind Brother
Arabian Nights: the first two. Not quite getting the fuss here, occasionally nicely shot and (especially) nice performances, but c'mon, if I wanted a bunch of poor dick jokes I'd just watch Sausage Party again. (PLEASE NO)
Tank 432
Hunt For The Wilderpeople. Awesome feelgood shit, if that's what you're after

Also these two documentaries:
How To Dance In Ohio
Life Animated
both great I thought, but I cannae really judge either objectively

I know it's a shitty answer, but you NEED to watch part 3 of Arabian Nights as well, Jonathan. It has the world's dumbest surfer, Scheherazade singing Perfidio, and an hour-long documentary on bird-trapping. Aw, I really want to watch the whole thing again someday soon.

I mean, this scene is the best of it's kind I've seen in a long time, and I saw Toni Erdmann the other day!

I forgot to post last month, I think:

Being 17 (Techine, 2016) 9/10
Certain Women (Reichardt, 2016) 8/10
American Honey (Arnold, 2016) 8/10
Captain America: Civil War (Anthony Russo and Joe Russo, 2016) 5/10
The Nice Guys (Black, 2016) 4/10
A Bigger Splash (Guadagnino, 2016) 8/10
Those Men (Kuhn, 2016) 6/10
The Black Panthers: Vanguard of the Revolution (Nelson, 2015) 7/10
Triple Agent (Rohmer, 2006) 7/10
* Quiz Show (Redford, 1994) 7/10
* Working Girl (Nichols, 1988) 5/16
Boyfriends and Girlfriends (Rohmer, 1987) 7/10
* Mala Noche (Van Sant, 1987) 8/10
* All That Jazz (Fosse, 1979) 6/10
Despair (Fassbinder, 1977) 5/10
Hustle (Aldrich, 1975) 6/10
* Mouchette (Bresson, 1967) 9/10
The Story of the Last Chrysanthemum (Mizoguchi, 1939) 6/10

Oh, I was totally gunna watch part 3 tonight, I wasn't gunna invest 4 hours in this then drop it before the end. Plus I did read that the last part concentrated more on Scheheradzede (not even gunna put "sp?" in brackets thee cus I know that's wrong), and I think that may interest me more. But I think the most of these have been somewhat spuriously tied in to the financial crisis, which iirc was meant to be the theme of all this? I dunno, I'm presumably not smart enough to get it all... I liked the landscapes mostly, and the animal stuff. I've never been to Portugal.

I did see A Bigger Splash, again loved it visually (yeah, various not-overly-clothed people), not a whole lot there tho

guess you don't like beautiful people frolicking eh

Imo it's not so much meant to be about the financial crisis, as it's about a crisis-ridden Portugal discovering it still can tell the stories of itself. Some of the stories are explicitly about unemployment and suffering, but a lot of it is just tall tales.

guess you don't like beautiful people frolicking eh

Oh please don't get me wrong, I appreciate the chest of Matthias Schoenaerts anytime (even though I had to c+p his name for spelling reasons). But I Am Love really hit me, and this one was just... admirable visually, I suppose.

Weiner on Showtime. The single scuzziest thing he did in the whole movie was drag his kid along on primary day.

guess you don't like beautiful people frolicking eh

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 23 October 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Keep it tx :)

I, Daniel Blake (Ken Loach, 2016) - I know people quibbled that better films like Toni Erdmann lost out at Cannes except this is one of his best films, maybe his best - you can have issues with some of the decisions here and there but I'm not sure anyone could have done better. Arabian Nights could've used this focus when talking about austerity and its monstrous impact on people's lives.

Film as unsparing judgment on our times.

I really hate Loach's standard anodyne idealised nice peasants, but in the current climate I'm glad he has made this one tbh.

I almost watched it last week during the Miami Film Festival's GEMS series but had to deal with a friend visiting from out of town.

I'd avoided all the chitchat about Daniel Blake before I saw it on Friday, so was totally ambushed by the scene in the foodbank - an exemplary bit of filmmaking.

I think people freaked out at Cannes because the choice seemed so plainly political, and Loach framed it as political in his acceptance speech, and it came from a festival who has never given it's award singly to a woman, in a year where a woman had just broken the ceiling on review stars. For years the discontent had been bubbling, and been shoved away by 'it's only about quality', then when quality and representation seemed to align, it was swept aside to make a different political statement.

I don't know. I've seen Toni Erdmann, and it's quite amazing, but will only get to see I Daniel Blake in a couple of months (and has only seen Neon Demon and Julietta of the competition). But I feel quite certain that a jury that fails to award a new voice - every single director whose film got an award had won one before - is too conservative for my taste.

Did Loach really frame as political in his acceptance speech? Sure is unlike him.

You know what would be radical? If Cannes and the Nobel Prize just turned around and said 'only women are winning this now for the next 100 years'.

Of course the world will probably cease to exist by then so 'equality' will never be achieved.

I'd avoided all the chitchat about Daniel Blake before I saw it on Friday, so was totally ambushed by the scene in the foodbank - an exemplary bit of filmmaking.

― Foster Twelvetrees (Ward Fowler), Tuesday, 25 October 2016 Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah, this the one where I tore up too. One of those for his moronic enemies who would say 'b-but that would never happen at a foodbank'/'poverty porn' etc. Its so well researched (totally in line with reports I've been reading over the years), detailed (there is food at the bank but it isn't fresh and there isn't everything you might need) but that scene and what happened was a leap to demonstrate what hunger and desperation might feel like. Calculating and effective, toward you are almost thinking a Haneke-like horror.

Calzino - I know what you are saying there but its interesting how the nice peasants stick to one another and some of the consequences - the growth of a black market in goods, or when the kindness is flipped to exploitation at the supermarket.

Loach said: 'When there is despair, the people from the far right take advantage. We must say that another world is possible and necessary.' It's that 'another world' that annoys, when the best hopes of a female winner has just been crushed by an old white man who has won before. That Loach claims to speak out against injustice everywhere, but happily participates in an event that at this point it's pretty obvious is discriminating against women and PoC.

There was question about why there were not a single WoC director in the main program, not in competition, not in special screening, not in Un Certain Regard. And the festival director said, like, 'the films weren't there' and 'wait until you see the films before you judge'. And then both of the biggest awards from the side programs - Camera d'Or and the Art Award in Quainzaine - went to WoC. And of course that was heralded as a victory and sign of things to come, rather than as a pretty obvious sign that the selection process is absolutely fucked up at this point.

What Loach talks about in terms of 'another world' is the one outside a film festival. But what would he know, he is an old white man and they should all be locked up and not allowed to produce anything. Never mind anything good.

We all look - as people who watch films - at the Cannes film festival and read about it. If they are discriminating then you are also complicit in this. Don't pretend to stand outside it and to have only noticed that they don't give awards to women now. This award is in line with their tastes for realism - Dardennes, The Class.

Loach is navigating two worlds. It was good of Cannes to recognise this film and make it hard for people over here to ignore it at this point.

Don't play dumb.

Anyone seen Being 17? Andre Téchiné's best film since Wild Reeds.

I've been shouting about this discrimination for years, what more do you want me to do? I've written about it, attacked my fellow critics for not speaking up against it, which could probably hurt my career if I kept it up.

If Loach would just speak up about it, I would be more than happy. It rankles that he positions himself against injustice, but is silent when the injustice helps him win over female directors. If I, Daniel Blake is good, then I'm happy it got recognized. But there's several ways the jury could have recognized it, and some of those ways wouldn't further marginalize the voice of women. Grand Prix, for instance, who the fuck needs more attention to Xavier Dolan anyways?

And don't say that this was just because of realism. In 2014, when Alice Rohrwacher's realistic masterpiece won Grand Prix, then all of a sudden the Palm went to stylized and theatrical Winter Sleep. In 2011 Maiwenn won Jury Award for Polisse, not a particularly good film, but an interesting mesh of crime film and cinema verité, yet the Palm went to un-realistic Tree of Life. I had to check to see what women were passed over when the Palm went to Uncle Boonmee in 2010, but turned out there were no women in competition that year. And I like all those picks, it's not that, they're just examples that realism doesn't always win. The taste at Cannes changes year to year, the only constant is that women will always be overlooked.

I'm seeing Being 17 this friday. Will report back.

It's been the affecting film I've seen this year.

Sounds good. I invited my mom to see it as well. It was either that or the new Hong Sang-soo, so she chose Techiné.

Right Now, Wrong Then? Lucky sod.

I know Cannes isn't just about realism, what I'm saying is that its part of their make-up: a realist film beating a more artful one isn't a surprise.

But what I'm also saying is that you can argue for pretty clear reasons as to why this has won that have nothing to with discrimination against femake filmmakers.

I know you meant to say female but "femake" sounds like a remake trend.

Yeah, xyzzz, as a matter of fact you can do that for all of the 70 editions that has now gone by without resulting in a solo woman Palm winner, it even makes a lot of sense that Jane Campion had to share it in 93, Chen Kaige is good as well, and Fifth Generation Chinese Cinema deserved a palm. But there's a pretty obvious pattern of discrimination there, as well as in what's included in competition to begin with, and at some point it's just too much. A pretty big reason is probably that just 3 out of the 17 Jury Presidents this century has been women, for instance.

Yup, Right Now, Wrong Then. CPH:PIX begins thursday, where I'll watch the new Eugene Green, and then there's Lav Diaz, Alain Guiraudie, Joao Pedro Rodrigues and a bunch of others. Will post a bit :) Has been watching a few of the older Hong Sang-soo films, Power of Kangwon province and Virgin Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, and what struck me is that they're kinda cool. Which seems totally weird for Hong Sang-soo. I love his films, but it's mostly digital images of drunk people in ill-fitting sweaters I think of when I think of him. Virgin is filled with black and white images of people playing badminton at night, and it's amazingly beautiful, but also kinda wrong...

Lol, the new Ghostbusters should so clearly have been called 'Ghostbustesr: The Femake' or 'Ghostbusters: Feboot'. Fequel. Frequel.

as a matter of fact you can do that for all of the 70 editions that has now gone by without resulting in a solo woman Palm winner

No you can't.

Lol, I'm not gonna write 70 defences to prove my point, do you have any you want to point to as indefensible?

My point is Loach's win is perfectly defensible.

Yeah. But almost every individual act of discrimination is defensible. There's still an obvious pattern of discrimination.

Even indefensible qualitative decisions like putting Jimmy's Hall in main competition, and Amour Fou in Un Certain Regard, can be defended on the grounds that Loach is a much bigger name. And of course, Loach made his name in an era of even shittier discrimination - his breakthrough Cannes year, 1990, where Hidden Agenda won the Jury Award, was another year without any women at all in competition, even though an impressive five women were included in UCR. And there was some SHITTY films in competition at Cannes in 1990. But hey, who ever heard of Ann Hui, right?

"almost every individual act of discrimination is defensible."

Most aren't. But Loach's win is not discrimination